City Council yesterday expressed support for a barebones
parking plan that would upgrade all meters to accept credit card
payments and increase enforcement around the city, which should boost
annual revenues. The plan does not increase rates or hours at meters, as
Mayor John Cranley originally called for. It also doesn’t allow people
to pay for parking meters through smartphones. The plan ultimately means
death for the parking privatization plan, which faced widespread
criticism after the previous city administration and council passed it
as a means to jumpstart new investments and help fix the city’s
operating budget and pension system.

Councilman Christopher Smitherman plans to pursue changes
to the city’s political structure to give more power to the mayor and
less to the city manager. Smitherman says the current system is broken
because it doesn’t clearly define the role of the mayor. Under
Smitherman’s system, the mayor would run the city and hire department
heads; the city manager, who currently runs the city and handles hiring,
would primarily preside over budget issues; and City Council would pass
legislation and act as a check to the mayor. Smitherman aims to put the
plan to voters this November.

The Cincinnati Art Museum maintains five political
cartoons from the famed Dr. Seuss (Theodore Seuss Geisel), but none are
currently on public display. The cartoons call back to the history before
World War II, when most of the world played ignorant to the horrors of
the Holocaust and Americans had yet to enter the war. Dr. Seuss loathed the villains on the world stage, and his cartoons promoted a
message of interventionism that would eventually lead him to join the
Army to help in the fight against the Axis powers. When he returned home, he would
write the famous stories and books he’s now so well known for.

Mayor Cranley and some council members appear reluctant to
accept a routine grant application that would allow the Cincinnati Health
Department to open two more clinics because of the potential effect the
clinics could have on the city’s budget. Cranley and other council
members also seem concerned that the Health Department played a role in
the recent closing of Neighborhood Health Care, which shut down four
clinics and three school-based programs after it lost federal funding.

Ohio legislators approved a bill that forces absentee
voters to submit more information and reduces the amount of time
provisional voters have to confirm their identities from 10 days to one
week. For Democrats, the bill adds to previous concerns that Republicans
are attempting to suppress voters. The bill now goes to Gov. John
Kasich, a Republican who’s expected to sign the measure into law.

Mayor to launch nationwide search to fill position

Cincinnati Parks Department Director Willie Carden, Mayor John Cranley's choice for city manager, has withdrawn from the nomination process, the mayor's office announced on Friday.

The mayor's office said it will keep Acting City Manager Scott Stiles in his current role while it launches a nationwide search for a permanent replacement.

"After consulting with my family, we have
come to the personal, private decision that it is best for me to remain as the director of the Parks Department," Carden said in a statement. "John Cranley is going to be a great mayor and
this is a difficult decision for me. But
it’s simply about what is best for me and my family. As a personal matter, I would ask that you
respect our family's privacy."

Carden's nomination initially drew wide praise from City Council, but it was snared in controversy after Carden said he will continue to live outside Cincinnati — a violation of the city charter. The Cincinnati Enquirer also uncovered an ethics probe that found Carden wrongfully took pay from both the city and the private Parks Foundation.

Councilman Chris Seelbach responded ambivalently to the news, praising both Carden and the decision to go through a national search.

"Although I would have supported Willie Carden as the permanent city manager, I'm glad to see we are now going to undertake the process we
should have taken all along," Seelbach posted on Facebook.

When Cranley announced the nomination on Nov. 27, the Charter Committee, Cincinnati's unofficial third political party, criticized Cranley for not undertaking a transparent national search prior to his decision.

City Council's Rules and Audit Committee almost considered Carden's nomination on Tuesday, but the decision was delayed for a week to give council members time to interview Carden one-on-one and evaluate ordinances for the nomination.

Tony Parrott to stay on while living in Butler County

Cincinnati City Council today changed a rule that stipulates which public employees must live within city limits. The move effectively exempts embattled Director of Water and Sewers Tony Parrott from having to move to the city after he was punished in June for misleading officials about his residency.

Under the new rules, only the city manager, assistant city manager, city solicitor and police chief will need to live in the city. The 6-2 decision came with some argument, however. Councilmen Kevin Flynn and Wendell Young voted against the rule change. Flynn said he felt it wasn’t fair to make concessions for someone who deliberately misled the city. Young had broader qualms with the change, saying he thinks all high-level city administration employees should have to live in the city from which they get their taxpayer-funded salaries.

“I have great difficulty with people who are in the higher part of the administration who help to create the rules and in many cases enforce the rules, and then are not subject to them,” Young said. “I don’t understand how the city of Cincinnati is good enough to work in, good enough to provide your income, but isn’t good enough to live in.”

Councilman Charlie Winburn, however, said the situation was actually the city’s fault. In 2012, the city-run sewer district merged with the water works department, which serves both the city as well as most of Hamilton County and parts of Butler and Warren Counties. Winburn says the residency requirements for Parrott’s job should have been updated at that time, since it is now effectively an agency that serves the greater region.

“Are we going to split Mr. Parrott in two now?” Winburn asked. “Do we have to get Solomon in on this thing?”

Other council members, including Councilwoman Yvette Simspon, voted for the change on legal grounds. Ohio law forbids residency requirements for some city employees, and there are questions about whether the city’s former rules complied with those laws. City solicitor Paula Boggs Muething said she believes council’s change today falls within the state’s laws.

Parrot, who has served as head of the Metropolitan Sewer District and Water Works, had listed his residence as a property on Westwood Avenue that turned out to be an empty lot he owned. Meanwhile, he was actually living in Butler County. City officials found out about the discrepancy in June and disciplined Parrott by docking him 40 hours of pay and requiring him to move into the city within 180 days. That time had elapsed and Parrott still hadn’t moved back. Parrott was granted a 45-day extension at the end of the six-month period as the city decided whether to fire him or change its rules.

Wound up in the questions about Parrott’s residency is the city’s court-ordered, $3.2 billion sewer project, a huge undertaking that will stretch into the next decade. The city was ordered to update its sewer system after a lawsuit by homeowners and environmental groups. Some council members say Parrott is integral to that ongoing process. Others, however, say that doesn’t excuse his actions.

“I understand the desire to keep this person in place,” Flynn said, acknowledging Parrott’s big role. “But I cannot support keeping someone who has been dishonest with the city and has continued to be dishonest with the city. I think that does a disservice to the rest of our city employees and to our citizens.”

Parrott has told City Manager Harry Black that he doesn’t want to live in the city for personal reasons but does want to remain at his job.

Compensation package remains controversial after changes

City Council on Wednesday officially appointed Scott
Stiles as interim city manager, but only after a testy exchange over the
compensation package left three of eight present council members as
“no” votes.

The package gives Stiles a raise if he returns to his previous role as one of two assistant city managers, which three council members said is unfair to lesser-paid city
workers, such as trash collectors, and the other assistant city manager, David Holmes, who won’t get comparable pay increases.

The package appoints Stiles to the city’s top job at a
salary of $240,000 a year, less than the previous city manager’s
$255,000 salary.

If the city appoints someone other than Stiles as
permanent city manager, Stiles will be placed back in the assistant city
manager role with a $180,000 salary, roughly $33,500 more than the
other assistant city manager.

If a permanent city manager decides to relieve Stiles of
the assistant city manager position, the city will be required to make a
good faith effort to find Stiles some form of employment within the
city until 2018, which would allow Stiles to collect his full pension
payment upon retirement.

Council Members David Mann, Charlie Winburn, Amy Murray,
Kevin Flynn and Christopher Smitherman voted in favor of the appointment
and package, while Chris Seelbach, Yvette Simpson and Wendell Young
voted against it. P.G. Sittenfeld was absent.

Simpson and Seelbach said they have no problem giving
Stiles a $240,000 salary while he’s in the interim city manager
position, but both argued it’s unfair to other city workers to give only
Stiles a raise if he’s reappointed as assistant city manager.

Simpson pointed out that the package would also increase
the city administration budget if the new permanent city manager decides
to keep Stiles and Holmes as assistant city managers at the agreed-upon
salaries.

Mayor John Cranley argued Simpson, Seelbach and Young were
trying to introduce a new standard that wasn’t present in the previous
council, where Simpson, Seelbach and Young were in the majority
coalition.

“I would have appreciated long-term thinking when I was
saddled with a $255,000 severance payment,” he said, referencing a
severance package the previous council gave to former City Manager
Milton Dohoney after Cranley announced Dohoney would resign on Dec. 1.

Simpson argued the severance package wouldn’t have been
necessary if Cranley agreed to keep Dohoney on the job until a permanent
replacement was found.

“It’s our job to protect the taxpayer,” Simpson said.

Vice Mayor Mann pointed out that if the city doesn’t fill
the assistant city manager role while Stiles presides as interim city
manager, the city will actually save money by leaving a salaried
administrative position vacant for six months.

Cranley previously said the city will conduct a national
search for a permanent city manager. Council members at Wednesday’s
meeting estimated the effort should take six months.

City Council plans to vote
today on 11 ordinances that would indefinitely pause the $132.8 million
streetcar project while council members review and weigh the costs of
cancellation versus the costs of completion. The measures are expected
to pass. Because they each allocate at least $100,000 in funding, the
ordinances are not susceptible to referendum. Although Mayor John
Cranley repeatedly defended the “people’s sacred right of referendum” in
opposition to the parking privatization plan while on the campaign trail, he
now says he doesn’t want the city to be forced to continue spending on
the streetcar project he adamantly opposes until November 2014, as would
be required under a traditional referendum.

If a 1930 Ohio Supreme Court ruling applies, Cincinnati could be responsible
for paying to move utility lines to accommodate for streetcar tracks,
but the city might be able to charge some of those costs back to utility
companies, according to a newly disclosed 2011 memo from a city
attorney to former City Manager Milton Dohoney. The memo is the latest
twist in the ongoing legal battle between Duke Energy and the city over
who has to pay $15 million to move utility lines for the streetcar
project. If the city loses the case, the cost of the project could climb
from $132.8 million to $147.8 million. But it’s still unclear how much
the 1930 case applies, given that the 1930 streetcar system was owned by
a private company and the 2016 version would be owned by the city.

Mayor Cranley and City Council agreed to delay
a vote on Willie Carden’s nomination for city manager to
give council members enough time to meet with the candidate one-on-one
and “digest” ordinances for his nomination. The nomination of Carden,
who currently heads the Parks Department, has been plagued by some
controversy because of Carden’s decision to live outside Cincinnati,
which violates the rules set by the city charter for the city manager, and recently uncovered ethics issues in which Carden wrongfully took pay from both the private Parks Foundation and city.

City Council also delayed voting on new rules for a week
to give council members more time to analyze and discuss the rules.
Until then, City Council will operate under the standard Robert's Rules
of Order. One possible change to the rules would increase the time given to public
speakers during committee meetings from two to three minutes.

The Ohio Supreme Court yesterday unanimously dismissed
a request to compel JobsOhio to disclose various documents. The court
argued that state law passed by Republican legislators largely exempted
JobsOhio from public record requests, which means the privatized
development agency can keep most of its inner workings secret.
Republicans argue the agency’s secretive, privatized nature is necessary
to quickly establish business deals around the state, while Democrats
claim the anti-transparency measures make it too difficult to hold
JobsOhio accountable as it uses taxpayer dollars.

The addition of measures that would create state and county councils to help get people off Medicaid ruined some of the bipartisan efforts behind Medicaid overhaul legislation,
but Republican legislators still intend to bring the legislation to an
Ohio House vote today. Republicans argue the controversial
amendments merely update the “framework” under which counties can
streamline efforts to get people off public assistance programs. But
Democrats say the last-minute measures might have unintended
consequences, including one portion that might give the state council
the ability to change — and potentially weaken — Medicaid eligibility
requirements.

An Ohio Senate bill would revamp and reduce teacher evaluation requirements
to make them less costly and burdensome for school districts. The
current standards require an annual evaluation of any Ohio teacher rated
below “accomplished” and, according to some school districts, create
high costs and administrative burdens that outweigh the benefits.

For the second time in two weeks, Hamilton County Juvenile Court Judge Tracie Hunter left court in an ambulance after supposedly passing out in court. Hunter faces increasing pressure from higher courts to rule on long-stalled cases.

Mayor John Cranley, Councilman Kevin Flynn and four union representatives from the Fraternal Order of Police, Firefighters Local 48, AFSCME and CODE will make a “major announcement” regarding the streetcar project today at 9 a.m., according to the mayor’s office. Local 12 reported last night that the announcement will be an offer from a private contributor to underwrite the streetcar’s operating costs for 30 years, but Councilman Chris Seelbach tweeted that the rumor is “not true.” If the report checks out, it could significantly increase the streetcar project’s chances of survival by alleviating a major budget concern. (Update: The announcement wasn’t as expansive as stated by Local 12, but Cranley said he’s open to private contributions. Read more here.)

Flynn and Vice Mayor David Mann could decide the fate of the streetcar project by Dec. 20, a deadline set by the federal government for up to $44.9 million in grants funding roughly one-third of the project. It’s a precarious position for Flynn, who in 2009 and 2011 campaigned in support of the project but completely changed his position during his 2013 campaign. Both Flynn and Mann say they will only support the project if the costs of cancellation are close to the costs of completion, but Flynn says he’s also concerned about the costs to operate the streetcar. Read more about the two council members and their pivotal roles here.

City Council yesterday appointed Scott Stiles as interim city manager, but only after heated debate over Stiles’ compensation package left three council members voting “no.” The package gives Stiles a raise if he isn’t appointed as permanent city manager and returns to his previous position as one of two assistant city managers, which some council members called unfair to other city workers, including the other assistant city manager, who wouldn’t get comparable pay increases. Council members estimated the search for another city manager will take six months.

Number crunchers will release a preliminary financing plan for the $2.5 billion Brent Spence Bridge project by the end of the month, according to Ky. Gov. Steve Beshear. The plan will include a mix of federal funding, state funding and tolls, Beshear explained. Ohio, Kentucky and federal officials largely agree the project is necessary to fix the functionally obsolete bridge, but the project stalled over the years as Northern Kentucky officials resisted using tolls for funding.

More than 31,000 Ohio students are using private-school vouchers this year, up 4,600 from the year before. Supporters say the vouchers allow more Ohioans to attend otherwise inaccessible schools, but opponents argue the vouchers effectively siphon money away from the public school system.

The new federal budget deal received support from Republican Speaker John Boehner, but Republican Reps. Steve Chabot and Brad Wenstrup, both from Cincinnati, say they’re unsure which way they’ll vote. The deal increases spending levels established after across-the-board cuts known as “sequestration”; the increased spending is balanced out by cuts elsewhere and hiked fees. The Washington Post gave a succinct rundown of the deal here.

Ohio legislators yesterday approved an expanded “Move Over” law that “requires motorists to slow down and, as conditions permit, shift to an adjacent lane when approaching construction, maintenance and public utilities commission vehicles that are parked on the roadside with flashing, oscillating or rotating lights,” according to the Ohio Department of Transportation. Previous law only requires slowing down and shifting lanes when approaching police and other emergency vehicles, including tow trucks.

The Ohio House approved a bill that could give student trustees voting power on public university boards, which could allow some students to help set tuition levels.

The Federal Transit Administration on Friday gave Cincinnati until Dec. 19
to make a final decision on the $132.8 million streetcar project before
it pulls up to $44.9 million in federal grants. The decision gives the
city less than two weeks to finish its audit of the project’s completion
and cancellation costs, which should be conducted by global auditing
firm KPMG. The streetcar project would presumably die without the
federal grants, which are covering roughly one-third of the project’s
overall costs, even if a majority of council or voters decide to
continue with the project.

Mayor John Cranley might veto legislation continuing the streetcar project,
even if a majority of council agrees to restart the project after its
costs are reviewed through an independent audit, said Jay Kincaid,
Cranley’s chief of staff, on Friday. If Cranley vetoes, council would
need a supermajority — six of nine votes on council — to continue the
project, which could be difficult since there are only two perceived
swing votes on council. The veto threat presents a bait-and-switch for
many streetcar supporters: Only five council members voted to pause the
project on Dec. 4 while the city reviews completion and cancellation
costs, but six members might be needed to continue the project if
Cranley reviews the audit and decides it is still too expensive.

Cincinnati Parks Department Director Willie Carden, Mayor John Cranley's choice for city manager, withdrew from consideration
on Friday. In making the announcement, the mayor’s office said it will
keep Acting City Manager Scott Stiles in his current role while the city
conducts a national search for a permanent replacement. Carden’s
nomination was initially well received by council members, but it grew
somewhat controversial after Carden insisted he will continue to live
outside Cincinnati — a violation of the city charter — and The Cincinnati Enquireruncovered an ethics probe that found Carden wrongfully took pay from the city and private Parks Foundation.

The Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) fell short on recommendations
from a previously undisclosed 2012 survey of the region’s business needs. In particular, CVG most likely won’t be able to meet the key recommendation to land Southwest
Airlines, a discount carrier that could help bring down fares and
increase travel destinations.